1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of printing an image, a photo printing system and a digital camera adapted for the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of printing an image, by which a printing area can be variably set based on the position of a face area detected on the image such that the face area existing on the image can be printed without being cut off due to mismatch between the aspect ratio of the image to be printed and a standard size of a printing material, and a photo printing system and a digital camera adapted to the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, by applying printing technologies such as ink jet methods, dye sublimation transfer methods, and direct thermal methods, photo printers for printing images taken by cameras have been commercialized. However, while an image having a 4:3 aspect ratio is generally used by cameras or personal computers (PC), photo printers generally support printing material having a 3:2 aspect ratio. Accordingly, when an image having a 4:3 aspect ratio taken by a camera or the like is output on a sheet of 3:2 printing material, cutoff of the image or big spaces occur due to mismatch between the image and the printing material.
Meanwhile, options for printing an image on a printing material are broadly broken down into two types. One is Image-full printing and the other is Paper-full printing. The Image-full printing is a printing method by which an image is printed such that at least some edges of an image have spaces. Meanwhile, in the Paper-full printing is a printing method leaving no spaces on the printing material. In the Paper-full printing method, image information of the top and bottom or the left and right ends of an image is cut off due to mismatch between the aspect ratios of the image and a printing material. In particular, the face image of a person photographed on an image may be cut off against the will of the user.